This invention relates to timepieces such as watches and clocks and, in particular, to an improved digital timepiece adapted to provide messages indicative of the approximate time.
Timepieces are now accurate and precise beyond usual human need. Inexpensive digital watches, for example, can display time to a tenth or even a hundredth of a second periods too short for human response. Moreover displays of such precision can, at a quick glance, be readily misinterpreted. For example, a quick glance at 12:58 may focus on the 12 without the recognition that the time is much closer to 1:00 than to 12:00.
Analog watches are easier to interpret, but suffer from mechanical problems and are expensive to make. They are difficult to read under low-light conditions and mistakes are made in matching hour hand with the hour tick-mark on the face. Accordingly there is a need for a timepiece provided with an approximate time message readily interpretable upon a quick glance.
In accordance with the invention, a digital timepiece is provided with a mode of operation which presents a time message indicative of the approximate time. The mode can be implemented by adding to a digital timekeeping circuit, a digital conversion circuit to generate the messages. A visual display on the timepiece face displays the message. In a preferred embodiment the precise time can be displayed as an alternative mode.